{"id":41668,"date":"2019-11-22T12:22:55","date_gmt":"2019-11-22T12:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41668"},"modified":"2019-11-22T12:22:55","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T12:22:55","slug":"gulf-students-caught-up-in-istanbul-university-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41668","title":{"rendered":"Gulf students caught up in Istanbul university row"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nISTANBUL:\u00a0A private university in Istanbul with more than 7,000 students, including many from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region, has become the latest arena for a bitter quarrel between Turkey\u2019s ruling party and a breakaway political faction.<\/p>\n

\nIstanbul Sehir University recently had its assets frozen by a court after state-run Halkbank claimed it was unable to repay more than 400 million Turkish lira ($70 million) in credit provided by the bank.<\/p>\n

\nBut many observers believe the real reason behind the move is not commercial, but something much deeper. They claim it is the result of a dispute between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the founder of the university, former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, an ex-ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who recently left the AKP to establish a new party with promises to campaign against Turkey\u2019s drift to authoritarianism.<\/p>\n

\nNow left without access to funds, the university is struggling to pay academics\u2019 monthly salaries or even electricity bills.<\/p>\n

\nAnd the bitter power struggle does not end here.<\/p>\n

\nValuable land on which the university\u2019s facilities are established is another source of dispute between the government and university management. Although the land was granted to the university with an administrative decision, some believe a legal interpretation could lead to confiscation of the facility.<\/p>\n

\nLast week, the Council of State, the country\u2019s highest administrative court, ruled that it should be returned to the government as the land was improperly given to the university at the time.<\/p>\n

\nDavutoglu, who resigned as prime minister in 2016, broke his silence in April this year after the local election setback for the AKP with a text criticizing the \u201cwrongdoings\u201d of the government. He resigned from the AKP in September along with several with other parliamentarians who served in high-ranking positions within the party.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nEarlier this month, Davutoglu said on social media that the government was engaged in \u201cdeliberate political acts\u201d against the university.<\/p>\n

\nIn a series of speeches, the former prime minister has repeatedly voiced discontent over the erosion of the party\u2019s core values of justice and freedom.<\/p>\n

\nDavutoglu, widely regarded as the chief architect of the AKP\u2019s foreign policy, was ranked seventh in a list of \u201c100 global thinkers\u201d by Foreign Policy magazine in 2010.<\/p>\n

\nMehmet Fatih Uslu, a Turkish literature specialist from Istanbul Sehir University, said the legal battle began after disagreements surfaced between Davutoglu and the government.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis is not only a punishment directed at the university because Davutoglu is among its founders, but also a stick to be used against any new political establishment that breaks away from the government,\u201d he told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\nUslu said that the university has always encouraged a \u201cpluralist academic environment\u201d despite the current polarized political atmosphere in the country. \u201cHowever, the response from the academic circle has been too weak, which allows the authorities to abuse rights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nThree journalists who interviewed Davutoglu in a YouTube program in August later had their shows dropped by the Russian-backed Sputnik news platform.<\/p>\n

\nWith Davutoglu rumored to be setting up his new political outfit in less than a month, the university may become a bargaining chip following Erdogan\u2019s previous warning against splits within the party. \u201cThose who take part in this kind of betrayal will pay a heavy price,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nMuzaffer Senel, a political scientist from Istanbul Sehir University, said: \u201cAcademics and administrative staff cannot get their salaries, and it harms families because they cannot pay their rent. If no immediate solution is found, electricity, water and gas will have to be cut, and students\u2019 education could be interrupted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nWhile the dispute continues, the future of foreign students at the university, including those from the Gulf region, remains uncertain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISTANBUL:\u00a0A private university in Istanbul with more than 7,000 students, including many from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region, has become the latest arena for a bitter quarrel between Turkey\u2019s ruling party and a breakaway political faction. Istanbul Sehir University recently had its assets frozen by a court after state-run Halkbank claimed it was unable…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":41669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}